Jesse McCauley
McCauley Cycle Works
Ca. 1896 March-Davis "The March" with period custom steer horn handlebars.
The lore surrounding these bars is that they originate from the Chicago stockyard tradition in the 1890's. For this reason I used a Chicago built bike from the same period to feature these killer horns.
There are a number of supporting details to validate the claim that these are indeed ca. 1896 Chicago made handlebars.
Chicago and particularly the Union Stock Yard would have been a very fitting environment to show off such a fashionable bicycle accessory and the horns themselves would have been readily available.
The stem itself is from Turner Brass Works which is also a Chicago company. This 1896 advert for their company shows the same stem and my suspicion is Turner Brass itself modified the stem in-house for the commission.
Thus far I have seen one poor quality period image of a Butcher with a safety bicycle outfitted similarly, reportedly also from Chicago, but the original photo is not at my disposal to study.
The lore surrounding these bars is that they originate from the Chicago stockyard tradition in the 1890's. For this reason I used a Chicago built bike from the same period to feature these killer horns.
There are a number of supporting details to validate the claim that these are indeed ca. 1896 Chicago made handlebars.
Chicago and particularly the Union Stock Yard would have been a very fitting environment to show off such a fashionable bicycle accessory and the horns themselves would have been readily available.
The stem itself is from Turner Brass Works which is also a Chicago company. This 1896 advert for their company shows the same stem and my suspicion is Turner Brass itself modified the stem in-house for the commission.
Thus far I have seen one poor quality period image of a Butcher with a safety bicycle outfitted similarly, reportedly also from Chicago, but the original photo is not at my disposal to study.